NOT SO TRANSMEDIA: CHANNELS AND PARTICIPATORY CULTURE IN SKAM SPAIN AUDIENCES
Abstract
The media and entertainment ecosystem have been increasingly incorporating content based on transmedia narrative models, because of the multiplication of channels, the evolution of ICT, and the adoption by audiences of a more active role within the creative processes. The generalization of the multiplatform distribution of these new narratives facilitates the leading role of the public, which is organized in communities that have emerged and grouped around the content. The Skam Spain series, the object of study of this research, is framed within these parameters, following the model of the original series of Norwegian origin. This fiction is an example that could seem representative of the use of transmedia to expand its narrative possibilities and at the same time get closer to its followers. Among the objectives that are proposed are the identification of the transmedia aspects of the series in its fourth season, defining the role of the broadcast channels, identifying the content that generates the greatest interaction, and valuing the role of the fan community as generators and participants. of the expansion of the narrative world. A mixed methodology is applied, focused on a quantitative and qualitative content analysis of eight episodes of the fourth season of the series Skam in Spain. After developing this study where the expansion of the narrative channels and the interaction with their fan communities can be observed, having as a strong point the breaking of paradigms in the use of the channels to promote engagement with the audiences, the results obtained point to the application of a timid transmedia narrative of the channels used by the series, as well as the metafictional resources that allow crossing that line between fiction and reality, also defined by the concept of the fifth wall.
NO TAN TRANSMEDIA: CANALES Y CULTURA PARTICIPATIVA EN LAS AUDIENCIAS DE SKAM ESPAÑA
Resumen
El ecosistema mediático y del entretenimiento han ido incorporando cada vez con más frecuencia contenidos basados en modelos narrativos transmedia, como consecuencia de la multiplicación de los canales, la evolución de las TIC y la adopción por parte de las audiencias de un papel más activo dentro los procesos creativos. La generalización de la distribución multiplataforma de estas nuevas narrativas facilita el rol protagónico del público que se organiza en comunidades surgidas y agrupadas en torno a sus contenidos. La serie Skam España, objeto de estudio de la presente investigación, se enmarca en estos parámetros, siguiendo el modelo de la serie original de origen noruego. Esta ficción supone un ejemplo que podría parecer representativo en el uso del transmedia para ampliar sus posibilidades narrativas y al mismo tiempo acercarse a sus seguidores. Entre los objetivos que se plantean está la identificación de los aspectos transmedia de la serie en su cuarta temporada, delimitar el papel de los canales de difusión, identificar los contenidos que generan mayor interacción y valorar el papel de la comunidad de fans como generadores y participantes de la expansión del mundo narrativo. Se aplica una metodología mixta, centrada en un análisis de contenido cuantitativo y cualitativo de ocho episodios de la cuarta temporada de la serie Skam en España. Tras desarrollar este estudio donde puede observarse la expansión de los canales narrativos y la interacción con sus comunidades de fans, teniendo como punto fuerte la ruptura de paradigmas en el uso de los canales para impulsar el engagement con las audiencias, los resultados obtenidos apuntan a la aplicación de una tímida narrativa transmedia de los canales que utiliza la serie, así como los recursos metaficcionales que permiten cruzar esa línea entre la ficción y la realidad, también definida por el concepto de la quinta pared.
NÃO TÃO TRANSMÍDIA: CANAIS E CULTURA PARTICIPATIVA NAS AUDIÊNCIAS DA SKAM ESPAÑA
Resumo
O ecossistema midiático e de entretenimento vem incorporando cada vez mais conteúdos baseados em modelos narrativos transmidiáticos, fruto da multiplicação de canais, da evolução das TICs e da adoção pelo público de um papel mais ativo nos processos criativos da mídia. A generalização da distribuição multiplataforma dessas novas narrativas facilita o protagonismo do público, que se organiza em comunidades que surgiram e se agrupam em torno de seus conteúdos. A série Skam Spain, objeto de estudo desta pesquisa, enquadra-se nesses parâmetros, seguindo o modelo da série original de origem norueguesa. Essa ficção é um exemplo que pode parecer representativo no uso da transmídia para ampliar suas possibilidades narrativas e ao mesmo tempo aproximar-se de seus seguidores .Dentro dos objetivos propostos está a identificação dos aspectos transmidiáticos da série em sua quarta temporada, definindo o papel dos canais de transmissão, identificando o conteúdo que gera maior interação e valorizando o papel da comunidade de fãs como geradores e participantes da expansão do mundo narrativo. Aplica-se uma metodologia mista, focada em uma análise de conteúdo quantitativa e qualitativa de oito episódios da quarta temporada da série Skam na Espanha. Após desenvolver este estudo onde pode ser observada a expansão dos canais narrativos e a interação com suas comunidades de fãs, tendo como ponto forte a quebra de paradigmas na utilização dos canais para promover engajamento com as audiências, os resultados obtidos apontam para a aplicação de uma tímida narrativa transmidiática dos canais utilizados pela série, bem como dos recursos metaficcionais que permitem cruzar aquela linha entre ficção e realidade, também definida pelo conceito de quinta parede.
Keywords
Transmedia, TV series, Participatory culture, Skam Spain, Multiscreen, Instagram, Audiences.
Keywords
Transmedia, Series, Cultura participativa, Skam España, Multipantalla, Instagram, Audiencias.
INTRODUCTION
The emergence and evolution of phenomena such as transmedia storytelling, characterized by an increasingly diversified use of media and the increasingly participatory role of recipients, largely respond to the transformation of the way we consume content.
Creators and franchises have had to adapt and develop new strategies and parallel channels to effectively reach an audience that is expert in the digital environment and that has consumption habits that are much more fragmented and dispersed than those developed during the context of the traditional mass communication media.
In the transmedia television production environment, the viewer is much more active and volatile, besides presenting consumption habits that are much more divided into small periods and dispersed across different screens. Audiences are no longer subject to a predefined grid to consume what they like, they do so when, how, and at the time they decide.
In this context, fiction series have evolved towards different content, transmission, and distribution options (Montoya, 2017; Rubio, 2021). Distribution on networks or social media, the use of various screens, and virtual or real-life interactions between the characters in the plot, besides other strategies, seek to capture the attention of increasingly hyperconnected consumers who demand an immersive and participatory experience within the series they follow.
Conceptual principles of transmedia
The term transmedia has been regularly used to explain the link between new information technologies and traditional design, architecture, narratives, and cultural content, and has been extensively researched in recent years, mainly from the perspective of narrative fiction (Albaladejo and Sánchez, 2019), but also of information (Mora-Fernández, 2017; Pérez-Rodríguez, 2020), journalism (Calvo-Rubio & Serrano, 2020; Costa, 2021; Moloney, 2022), advertising or political communication campaigns (Medvedev, 2021; Moya-Cantero, 2020), or education (Giraldo-Luque et al., 2020; Nieto (2021)Nieto (2021).
The generalization of the term transmedia outside the academic field can be synthesized today as the different ways of hosting, narrating, and disseminating content on complementary platforms, leaving a favorable margin for user interaction.
This conceptualization causes that, in many cases, some products that are simply distributed through different platforms that need to be consumed individually and that do not expand the narrative universe of the story are considered transmedia products. Characteristics of a content distribution strategy thatPrádanos (2013) defines as cross-media or multiplatform.
If we carry out a chronological and conceptual review to define what a transmedia product is, it is necessary to cite Henry Jenkins (2003), the first to propose the term adapted to the narrative strategies of the entertainment industries. Following his definition, a transmedia story unfolds across multiple platforms, by adapting to each of them, the text is reformulated making a specific and valuable contribution to its entirety. Thus, in the ideal transmedia storytelling, each medium contributes to the story as a whole based on the characteristics of its support.
To illustrate this transmediality,Jenkins (2003) provides another term: media convergence (p.37); defined by two main aspects: a) the same flow of content that moves through multiple platforms that cooperate, and b) this collaborative role is extended to the audiences that, in a convergent environment, abandon the passive role granted to them by the mass communication society to actively participate in creating their own entertainment experience.
Media convergence breaks the vertical scheme that defined both media production and consumption to move to a horizontal and fragmented scheme. This active role of consumers makes them prosumers (Toffler, 1980), who, asMcluhan and Fiore (1967) already anticipated, take significant autonomy and control both in consumption and production of content. In this context, Cerdán (2018) points out the empowerment that fictional content can offer to audiences, through a study carried out with university students based on the Black Mirror series.
On the other hand, the arrival of ICTs, especially social networks and the widespread use of second screens, has facilitated this commitment of the prosumer (Prádanos, 2011). The digital ecosystem offers the user the possibility of getting involved in the plot and interacting with the scriptwriters, director, actors, or even with the characters themselves, contributing new content in an increasingly radial narrative that goes beyond the classic scheme and in which the experience that incites consumption sometimes prevails over the content.
Jenkins (2007, p. 48) defines a classification of the characteristics or principles that a transmedia project should meet to be called as such: a) expansion based on the virality achieved in social networks and depth developed by the fan communities when going further in the story, b) continuity in the plots and characters and multiplicity in the edges and differentiated versions of the characters and plots, c) user immersion and extrability replicating part of the story to the real world, d) construction of worlds from an original germ, e) seriality in the distribution of content with special emphasis on the points of tension that give continuity to the story, f) subjectivity exploring different points of view, for example through secondary characters, and e ) performance with the active participation of the prosumer or fan that helps expand the narrative universe.
This last principle connects directly with the concept of “fanfiction”, a practice marked by the interaction of followers with fiction through social networks that has been widely addressed in the academic field in recent years (Álvarez, 2021; Duggan, 2021; González, 2018; Gascón Vera, 2020; Vázquez et al., 2018; Villén and Ruiz del Olmo, 2020) (Duggan, 2021; Villén & Olmo, 2020; Vázquez, 2018).
In this interaction, the consumer is part of the environment that persuades them to make such consumption effective or not, while at the same time being persuaded through multiple channels that are also at their disposal to influence the opinions of others (Barrientos-Báez, Caldevilla-Domínguez, & Parra-López, 2021).
In the mid-90s, with the beginning of the golden age of series on HBO, this interaction was fundamentally translated into the influence of fans on writers and producers, in the modification of plots, or the adaptation of advertising campaigns and participation in virtual spaces articulated around the series such as forums and blogs. However, today the widespread use of social networks and the possibilities they offer has allowed audiences to start producing their own content around a fictional product.
The canonical conception of the series in fixed blocks of time for which people had to wait between season and season, or between chapters that increased the arc of narrative tension, has traditionally generated a shared waiting period among fans. The Internet has allowed the audience to react to these waits through different strategies such as the exchange of chapters between followers from different countries. Today, fiction is consumed among its followers at increasingly dissimilar rates.
In the same way, the separation between the characters and their audience is a classic paradigm of fiction that has been overcome in recent years by breaking a fifth wall (Ortega & Padilla, 2020). Thanks to technology and the breadth offered by social networks, this scenario promotes interaction in transmedia stories, offering the public different and close content that goes from fiction to reality, while taking advantage of the use of the multiscreen and the marketing that accompanies the audiovisual product is reinforced.
This trend has also made content production more flexible, working on a narrative sequence that is less linear and more expanded from the transmedia point of view (Kuztriz, 2014, p.17).
The producers work according to the expectations of their audiences during the pauses that still exist between the chapters. Thus, in transmedia fanfictions, it is the audiences who build their own consumption sequences of each series without reference to publication dates and access the pieces of the narrative world one by one, gradually accumulating and in a not necessarily linear way, information about the characters in the plot. This dynamic of consumption opens up increasingly flexible narrative possibilities, for example: exploring the life options of the protagonists through different timelines, as in the case of movies like Joker or Spiderman or Marvel comics.
Skam Spain: origins and transmedia conception
The Skam series, broadcast in Spain since 2018 as an adaptation of the original series of Norwegian origin, represents a prototype of transmedia fiction adapted to this audience profile. Its main purpose is to capture the attention of its target audience, mostly teenagers, combining content and themes attached to the reality and concerns of that generation.
This attention is achieved through innovative narrative methods, such as the fragmentation of each chapter into clips that are broadcast in real-time or the creation of characters’ profiles on social networks, which complete the plot and interact with their fans.
Starting from the interest that may arise from an adaptation that seeks to replicate the success of the series in its country of origin, in this research we will analyze the fourth season of Skam Spain (September-October 2020), to establish patterns and strategies that start of an approach to its followers using multiple screens. In the same way, we will analyze through which platforms its transmedia narrative is developed based on real issues and conflicts such as sexuality, religion, personal relationships, gender, or tolerance, framed in the daily life of a group of high school students.
The series was advertised since its launch as an example of a transmedia narrative that gave a relevant role to the use of ICT as a mechanism to connect with its audience, empowering it within the development of the plot. In this research, we intend to elucidate if this approach is fulfilled in practice and if Skam Spain responds to the participatory and collaborative canons that transmedia establishes.
One of the distinctive features of Skam is the development of the digital identity of its characters. From the beginning, each of the characters had their own Instagram profile, where followers could stay informed of all their activity through posts linked to the story, deciding for themselves who to follow and who not to.
To complete the "digital realism" of the characters, Movistar published their WhatsApp conversations as a complement to the plot, which enhanced the conception of the series as an immersive experience. This obsession with realism and the time rigor of the story is also demonstrated by the broadcast clips since they are released at the same time they supposedly take place in the story. A whole narrative commitment that is condensed on Sundays with the compilation of the different fragments in a chapter that is broadcast in its entirety on Movistar channel #0.
Thus, Skam is characterized by a novel staging with multiple perspectives of the story and the use of various screens for its dissemination. In the next sections we will analyze whether, besides this approach, it has enough characteristics of the canon to be considered a typical transmedia series.
Skam Spain (2018–2020) was created by Movistar+ and Zeppelin Tv, as an adaptation of the original Norwegian series. It is a production where the conflicts of a group of adolescents belonging to generation Z are shown, with an approach that focuses on social networks (Instagram), also broadcasting the conversations between the characters through WhatsApp and daily clips broadcast in real-time (YouTube), to then offer the transmission of the complete clips in the form of a chapter once a week on its pay channel (Channel #0 Movistar).
This immersive strategy allows a greater sense of closeness and realism to the characters, who maintain interaction with their followers. Its innovative narrative resources have been publicized through a marketing campaign that places the series as revolutionary within transmedia fiction. Furthermore, for its promotion, it has its official channels controlled by Movistar+, with the official Skam website, Instagram, YouTube channel, and with the personal social networks of the characters that allowed direct interaction of their fans with them.
The series broadcast 4 seasons in Spain until 2020 in which it was characterized by developing specific and controversial topics, touching on aspects such as feminism, cyberbullying, toxic relationships, bisexuality, exploration of identity, mental illness, sextortion, religion, beliefs, even the economic crisis and how it affects Spanish families.
From the academic field, Skam and its transmedia dimension have recently been researched through various publications such as Gago (2021), who identify the characteristics of representation and generational identification of the series, as well as the importance of social networks in their transmedia scheme conceived tools aimed at sustaining the narrative rhythm during the first seasons, or that of VVillén and Olmo (2020) who relate the construction of its characters with the representation of archetypes and a representation of fragmented digital identities. Although there are still few studies in Spanish that are dedicated to the Spanish version of the series, there is a greater number of publications dedicated to the original Norwegian version. We can name the studies byCanalés (2020) and Galvano (2020), which focused on the analysis of its narrative structures; Pagán (2019), Schanke (2019), Bengtsson (2018), or Skarsbø and Magnus (2018), focused on its innovative aspects as a fiction series and that coincide in highlighting new avenues of exploration focused on possibilities of interaction with its audiences. Within our borders, dedicated to the Norwegian franchise, we find the research works of Catalá (2017), Sabina, Fuente, and Martínez (2019), andQuintana (2020) who are in favor of its classification as a transmedia narrative structure.
OBJECTIVES
Given the scarcity of academic works carried out on the Spanish version of Skam and to answer these questions about our object of study, we propose a research work focused on the following objectives:
-
Identify both classic and original aspects of SKAM as a transmedia fiction series
-
Delimit the role of the different channels within the transmedia map and the global strategy for the dissemination of the series.
-
Identify those contents that generate greater interaction among the user community
-
Clarify if the community of fans of the series has an active role as content generators and participates in the expansion of the narrative world.
In the same way, the following research questions are considered: 1) despite the multiplicity of channels, the diversity of points of view of the characters, and the inclusion of transmedia elements that dot the plot of the receiver and the audiences, in Skam, these audiences continue to play a proactive role inherent in fanfiction? 2) Is the strategy of inclusion and participation of the audiences in the series directed towards the fragmentary passive consumption of the content in the different fiction channels or rather towards active participation related to the creation of content?
METHODOLOGY
In this research we have applied a mixed and descriptive methodology, defined in this way by Hernández et al: “it collects data in a single moment, a single time. Its purpose is to describe variables and analyze their incidence and interrelation at a given moment. It is like taking a photograph of something that happens” (1998, pp.187), the authors point out.
For this reason, we have focused on the fourth season of Skam, a time when the series has already reached a point of maturity in which its followers interact naturally because they know and follow the production strategies on the different platforms.
To address some objectives such as the identification of the aspects that define this strategy of the series, as well as the role that each channel plays in it, we have opted for a mixed, qualitative and quantitative, analysis of these channels, taking into account the following variables:
a) The content offered by the different channels that we have identified and compiled through statistical tables focused on indicators such as the number and type of publications. That is quantitative and qualitative aspects, respectively.
b) The analysis of its sequential order exemplified in a timeline of a typical chapter.
c) The characters, defined as a variable ranked by the importance of appearance in season 4.
d) The interactions in social networks of the 8 Instagram profiles corresponding to its protagonists that have quantified through statistical tables the number of likes and shares identifying the relationship between characters and audiences.
e) Views of chapters hosted on the YouTube channel and interactions in WhatsApp chats exchanged by the main characters hosted on the Movistar website, reflected quantitatively through statistical tables.
f) The identification and qualitative study of the fan pages published spontaneously by the community of followers in these spaces, identifying and addressing representative examples of the dynamics and ways in which their audiences interact with the series.
RESULTS
We detail below the analysis of the 8 analyzed episodes of Season 4 of Skam Spain. None of them exceed 45 minutes in length. These episodes, broadcast weekly on Sundays on channel #0 Movistar+, are a compilation of the clips that are shared during the week in real-time, through the Movistar+ YouTube channel, which has 617,000 subscribers.
|
# |
Title |
Duration |
Broadcast date |
|
1 |
"Entre dos mundos" |
37 min |
September 6, 2020 |
|
2 |
"No llevo el hijab" |
43 min |
September 13, 2020 |
|
3 |
"Seguro que Alá lo entiende" |
45 min |
September 20, 2020 |
|
4 |
"Nunca es por Amira " |
37 min |
September 27, 2020 |
|
5 |
"Ramadán kareem" |
34 min |
octubre 4, 2020 |
|
6 |
"El Páramo de la Escuela Secundaria" |
37 min |
October 11, 2020 |
|
7 |
"Yo no sé nada" |
39 min |
October 18, 2020 |
|
8 |
"Los perdedores" |
40 min |
October 25, 2020 |
Source: Own elaboration.
When referring to the number of clips that cover episodes 1 to 8 of the fourth season, we observe that a total of 56 clips are added, with an average of 7 clips per episode and an average duration of approximately 9 minutes. The average viewing in this period reaches 2 million 182 thousand users, with an average of 6 thousand 134 comments.
The number of views reached by these pieces is remarkable and, although we were unable to get the company Movistar+ to provide the audience data for this research, we would like to underline that these views refer to content that is disseminated through its page and that it’s showed in pills before the transmission of the complete chapter on the traditional television screen.
For example: in the sum of the views of the clips of episode 2, these reached a maximum of 3 million 455 thousand on average for season 4. In this same episode, the largest number of comments is also counted, adding 7,517 in total.
|
Total clips S 4 (E1 to E8) |
Clips per episodes |
Duration ( Average ) |
Views ( Average ) |
Comments ( Average ) |
|
56 |
7 |
9:50:00 |
2.182.839 |
6.134 |
Source: Own elaboration.
When we delve into one of the social networks of the series such as Instagram and analyze the profiles of the 8 main characters of this season, we observe how Amira, the protagonist of the fourth season, is the one who accumulates a greater number of publications, however, compared to the other 4 girl protagonists of the series, she is the one with the fewest followers. Despite having two fewer publications, Cristina is the one with the most followers.
In the same way, it is remarkable that if we take into account the number of comments, Cristina is also the one that occupies the first place, followed by Nora, while Amira, the protagonist of season 4, occupies the third position.
Thus, in season 4, it can be seen how on a social network like Instagram, characters like Nora and Cris (protagonists of previous seasons) gather a more consolidated community of fans and even a priori arouse greater interest in social networks at the beginning of this season.
|
Characters |
Type of character |
IG account |
No. Followers |
No. Post |
Comment |
Like |
Comment (Average) |
Like (Average) |
|
Cristina Soto Peña |
Main character |
@lo_siento_cris |
181.000 |
20 |
6.460 |
203.030 |
323 |
10.152 |
|
Nora Grace |
Main character |
@Lady.norris |
138.000 |
12 |
3.592 |
287.688 |
299 |
23.974 |
|
Eva Vázquez Villanueva |
Main character |
@evavvillas |
114.000 |
13 |
804 |
432.332 |
62 |
33.256 |
|
Lucas Rubio Fernández |
Main character |
@xaolukas |
92.700 |
11 |
1.039 |
60.017 |
94 |
5.456 |
|
Amira Naybet |
Central character T4 |
@amiratupordonde |
97.800 |
22 |
2.479 |
580.030 |
113 |
26.365 |
|
Elvira Gómez García |
Main character |
@viridibabidibu |
76.700 |
15 |
1271 |
172.490 |
84 |
11.500 |
|
Dani Soto |
Central T4 |
@dani_sp_12 |
25.700 |
10 |
486 |
203.030 |
49 |
20.303 |
|
Kassim Hamed |
Main character |
@im.kas.im |
9.181 |
9 |
463 |
34.493 |
51 |
3.882 |
Source: Own elaboration.
The chats in Skam are published in the Movistar+ account as WhatsApp screenshots of the characters. With an average of more than ten chats per chapter, most of them, up to 62%, function as a complement after the plot developed in the clip, only on a few occasions (18%) do they serve as introducers for the following clip.
The chats studied during season 4 focus almost exclusively on the main character, Amira, who participates in 75% of the conversations. Up to 47% of the published chats are focused on the relationship that she has with Dani.
The couple also has the only introductory chats for the next clip, generally quite short and aimed at organizing their encounters, which helps to reinforce the expectation for the next clip.
Two group chats also stand out: "Zaorejas Power" or "El Chat de fin de curso" which, in most cases, seem more intended to reflect the daily life of high school students, than to develop narrative elements of the main plot.
|
Number of chats |
Chats pe r episode |
Average of likes per chat |
Chats per main characters |
Narrative position |
|
83 |
10,25 |
454,7 |
Amira 33 Chat Zaorejas Power 14 Dani 13 Chat Fin de Curso 10 Cris 9 Nora 3 |
Complemento posterior a clip 62% Narración sin relación con clip 20% Introductor clip siguiente 18% |
Source: Own elaboration.
If we analyze the exogenous channels, that is, channels not managed by the producers of the series but that deal with it, we observe that most have been created spontaneously by fan communities on social networks.
The fan pages created around the series proliferate on different social networks. Up to 130 accounts have been found in them, highlighting a space such as Twitter that, in principle, bears no relation to the channels chosen by Movistar to promote fiction, followed by Instagram and Facebook.
The main function of the pages found is based on, as mentioned above, content compilation (69%), compared to those that only follow specific characters (21%) or create graphic elements related to the series (16%), mainly drawings and illustrations.
Those dedicated to customizing official Skam content and proposing alternative content account for only 4%. Within the latter there are some examples such as @bolloshipper on Twitter and Instagram, an account made up of two fans who have created alternative content by customizing the official chats and clips of the series, focusing on the second season focused on the relationship between Cris and Joana and developing it on their own.
|
Fan pages found |
By platform or social network |
Pages with the most followers per social network |
Topics |
|
130 |
62 Twitter 57 Instagram 8 Facebook pages 3 Facebook groups |
Instagram @skam.espana 142.000 followers Twitter @skamspain 47.000 followers Skam España 2500 followers |
Compilation content 69% Fans of specific characters 21% Article related to the series 16% Alternative content 4% |
Source: Own elaboration.
To understand the use of tools, screens, and the strategies of the series, we have made a timeline, from the first chapter of the fourth season (taken as an example), where the temporality that they establish between their publications and the fragmentation or diversification that they propose to follow the plot and the different narrative models that it offers is evident: clips, stories, posts, and chats, which are finally reflected in the complete chapter that is broadcast on Sundays.
Source: Own elaboration.
It can be seen how, despite the simultaneous use of social network profiles intended to provide veracity and coherence to the plot or introduce some aspects of the narrative as cliffhangers, the weight of the plot continues to fall almost in its entirety in the video clips, with the publications on social networks being mere complements, a trend that is observed in the publication timeline of a typical episode.
DISCUSSION
After analyzing these results, we will go on to detail some trends that underline the transmedia conception of the series compared to the principles of the transmedia canon pointed out by authors such as Jenkins (2007), although with some nuances.
In the first place, it is observable how the principles of continuity are fulfilled in the plots and characters and the multiplicity in the edges and differentiated versions of these characters and their stories. The creators of Skam return to the series each season, focusing on a character who, both in terms of its weight in the plot and its presence on social networks, has had much less prominence up to that point. This technique, although it forces the followers and the digital communities to which they belong to reformulate their counterweights of support and attention, contributes to weaving the narrative tapestry of the series. The different points of view of the characters help to fit the pieces of a fragmented plot that changes focus in each season.
Likewise, we can associate this argumentative decision with another transmedia principle of the same author: that of subjectivity since it explores different points of view. For example: through the development of secondary characters, proposing to the followers a new vision with each season when they are already comfortable and accustomed to the previous character but without displacing it completely from the stage and trying to take advantage of the digital community that this character has previously generated.
Movistar+'s decision is striking, given the desire to direct the series mainly to a young audience, to host these chats within its site, channeling traffic towards it and away from social networks. This decision is reflected in the interaction with the posts: if the chats have an average of 454.7 likes, any publication on Instagram of the characters in the series triples that interaction at least. At this point, the discussion would confront the characteristics that Fuente, Lacasa, and Martínez-Borda (2019) have defined, who concluded in their study that young people perform functions of creation and dissemination through social networks since the platform tries to lead them to consume the series in other ways, limiting these functions.
Within Skam's transmedia strategy, these chats fulfill a function that reinforces other principles outlined by Jenkins (2007): the construction of worlds from an original germ. The recreation of a scenario and the development of details through subplots apparently lacking in interest, contribute to reinforcing the experience of the follower of the series in high school and the internal coherence of the narrative universe of the characters (Talks, 2010). To achieve this purpose, Skam diverts the plot to an apparently secondary space such as its own webpage, which at the same time serves as a collection point for the series' materials (clips and chats) and for following the plot, which reinforces the brand image and helps its followers to focus attention on the origin of the franchise.
As Gago (2021) point out, this strategy seeks for the characters to stimulate conversation between fans in their social networks and attract viewers to the fiction. Subsequently, and gradually, the multiplatform universe is being expanded with exclusive content for Movistar+ subscribers as part of a strategy to retain the youth target.
Another of the characteristic transmedia phenomena observed during the study carried out on the series focuses on the importance of the user, in this case, the fan communities, and their influence on the development of the plots. In the case of Skam, we could cite the case of the withdrawal, due to complaints from fans, of an Instagram account created by a group of fans to harass a protagonist who had had an affair with the boyfriend of another of them.
Despite this influence, as we stated in one of our research questions, we concluded that the strategy of inclusion and participation of the audiences in the series is directed towards the fragmentary passive consumption of the content on the different channels rather than encouraging active participation related to content creation. In this way, from the official channels, active participation on the part of the users has not been encouraged, until the final farewell chapter, in which the accounts of the leading actors began to take control of the accounts of their characters to do a live video answering the questions of their followers. Interactions between fans and fictional characters have been minimal.
It is also noteworthy that the official Movistar channel does not intend to establish a synergy guide between the existing fiction channels by guiding the user through a transmedia map since there are rarely web references to Instagram profiles. This compilation of the series is carried out unofficially, by wikis and specific social networks created by fans who are in charge of ordering the pieces of the puzzle of the story for their followers.
In this way, answering another of our research questions, in Skam, the audiences do not play a proactive role characteristic of fanfictions. The role of its audience seems more designed towards the reordering of narrative elements than destined to contribute new elements to the story. Despite its orthodoxy regarding the established canons of transmedia storytelling, Skam can hardly be considered a typical interactive fanfiction, as it grants the viewer a passive role in the construction of the plot.
CONCLUSIONS
Responding to one of the main objectives of this research: to identify those classic and original aspects of SKAM as a transmedia fiction series, we have detected that the series meets some of the basic aspects of the canon, such as the narrative expansion through different platforms or the opening of participation spaces for its users through interaction with the profiles of the characters of the series on social networks. It is precisely in this last point that one of the most characteristic and original aspects of the series from the point of transmedia fiction lies, although this interaction between fictional characters and their communities of followers has already been explored previously in other Spanish fiction series. as could be the case of El Ministerio del Tiempo (Miranda-Galbe & Cabezuelo-Lorenzo, 2018).
On the other hand, Skam stands out for its variety of channels and screens designed to offer various content such as profiles on social networks, WhatsApp chats, or extended clips and videos on the Movistar+ website, but which essentially do not expand the plot but rather distribute practically the same content across different platforms. Although the story extends to this diversity of channels, their main function is to derive traffic to increase views on the Movistar+ YouTube channel. A narrative expansion is not perceived in the content distributed by the different platforms, but rather an adaptation of the plot shown in the main video clips, which brings Skam closer to a cross-media fictional taxonomy (Prádanos, 2013), in which the broadcast channels with the same content are diversified, instead of transmedia, in which each differentiated fragment in different media makes sense by itself and helps to articulate the narrative universe as a whole.
In the same way, the phenomenon of fanfiction or the participatory interaction of audiences with the plot, a fundamental pillar of the transmedia definition, is perceived in Skam in a very attenuated way. In response to one of the research questions formulated in this work, we observed that the followers are invited to order the pieces of the plot through the variety of channels in which it is exposed, but that is where their role of participation in the series ends. Except for specific exceptions, there is no participation or modification of the fan accounts in the script or intervention in the plot. The proposals for reworking and participation in the creation of content are anecdotal among the fan accounts that orbit around Skam, limiting themselves, as we have detected in this investigation, to the creation of fan arts and comments on the chapters. In the same way, there is hardly any interaction on networks between the profiles of the characters and followers.
The active role reserved for the audience by the classic principles of transmedia storytelling is diluted here in a false appearance of protagonism in which the followers are limited to recomposing and consuming the pieces of the puzzle by choosing between two or three viewing order options that the narrative menu offers them. The audience takes an important portion of control in the consumption, but not in the production of content.
However, the effort that its creators make in building coherence within the timing of their publications is noteworthy, since they offer their followers the option of deciding how to watch the series, taking advantage of the much shorter clips, to attract those who do not have access to the payment platform, also offering them the opportunity to see them in apparently real-time.
At this point, the jump from fiction to reality is inclined to provide the user options to follow the plot of the series, without having to watch the series conventionally in a complete chapter. However, despite the experiment of building part of the plot on social networks, Movistar+ does not venture to move the plot away from the spaces controlled by the franchise. The chats are hosted on their website and the Instagram profiles contribute to developing characters but limit themselves to supporting secondary aspects of the plot.
The bulk of the narration always takes place in the video clips. Skam makes a revolutionary proposal in its concept of transmedia storytelling that it then applies only halfway to its development, obeying its definition as transmedia more as a marketing strategy than as a rigorous adoption of the canons of the term. Despite these deviations that prevent some of the approaches from being classified as typical transmedia fiction, they do allow us to guess the paths that series for young people will probably take in the coming years.